Twenty years ago, Celia Pacquola was a relative unknown when her then partner did something that changed her life forever.
“I got pushed into stand-up comedy by a guy I was dating at the time,” Celia, 42, tells TV WEEK. “He was a comedian and he signed me up for Raw Comedy without telling me. It was the best thing he could have done because I don’t think I would have signed myself up.”
With enthusiasm and, indeed, raw talent, Celia made it all the way to the national finals of Australia’s largest open-mic competition. Her fifth ever stand-up comedy gig saw her performing at Melbourne Town Hall, where she won the award for best first-time entrant, the Raw Recruit prize.
It was this accidental start to comedy that kickstarted Celia’s career. And, side note, her ex continued to play a part in her future success.
“The guy that signed me up to do comedy ended up cheating on me so much,” Celia adds. “He was a sex addict and a sociopath, but, by doing that, he gave me material for my first hour-long comedy show, which won a bunch of awards and made me a way more famous comedian than him. It’s delicious.”
Celia has since gone on to star in TV shows such as Utopia, The Beautiful Lie and Rosehaven, the latter of which she created with fellow comedian Luke McGregor. She’s a regular panellist on Have You Been Paying Attention? and has hosted Thank God You’re Here.
Her latest comedy (or dramedy, if you’d prefer) is Dog Park, which centres on a colourful community of pet owners who congregate, as the title suggests, at a local dog park.
Celia makes no bones about one of the key reasons she took the role: she wanted to work with dogs.
“I can’t have a dog in my real life because of all the travel I do and having a toddler,” she says. “So, this was an opportunity to spend time with dogs for work. There were dogs on set every day, which is something I have argued for on every set.”
Of course, while dogs can be trained to do what they’re told, they don’t always listen. Or care. There was a moment during filming when Celia had to embrace the unpredictable nature of dogs and go with the flow.
“They were doing a beautiful sweeping crane shot,” Celia recalls. “And I was walking in the distance. It’s very, very dramatic. And no one else can see this, but a dog walked up and stopped directly in front of me and did a large s–t.
“I’m walking towards the dog because I have to keep walking in a straight line. And this dog is looking at me, probably thinking, ‘Why are you walking towards me while I’m doing a s–t?’”
Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint – the surprising moment happened just off camera. Celia, ever the professional, rolled with it (but not in it!).
For Celia, the timing of Dog Park, was just right – it came soon after drama Playing Gracie Darling, in which she took on the harrowing role of the mother of a missing girl.
“In Playing Gracie Darling my character was devastated the whole time,” Celia says. “I loved that for the challenge. But with [Dog Park], it was fun to be a ‘glass-half-full’ character who loves dogs and connection and community.”
Is Celia like her Dog Park character, Samantha? Yes and no.
The comedian explains it like this: “The other day I saw a duckling out of the blue and I was giddy with joy, right? Samantha’s kind of that all the time, whereas I’m not that all the time.
“So, she’s me when I’m feeling super positive, which is getting harder these days. It’s quite nice to play a character that doesn’t seem to be dragged down by the way of the world.”
Celia also enjoyed the chance to break away from playing the “sassy best friend”, a role she has taken on in many shows. In Dog Park Samantha may, or may not, be a love interest for main character, Roland (Leon Ford).
“It’s a bit ‘rom-commy’ in parts, which was fun for me,” she says of the series. “But I feel insecure about that because, you know, I’m not Katherine Heigl or whoever.”
At this point in her career, Celia can afford to pick and choose the roles she feels she’ll really enjoy or will be challenging. She also has Eleanor, her three-year-old daughter with partner Dara Munnis, to consider when taking on jobs, especially if it means she’ll be away for extended periods of time.
She’s still working on projects with Luke (“he’s my real-life best friend”), including sitting for a painting on Portrait Artist of the Year. “It was very confronting,” she says of the experience. “You can’t control it and you have insecurities, like we all do. But it was beautiful.”
Celia even commissioned the artist who painted her, Jenny Croom, to paint her mother.
Twenty years since she started in comedy, Celia feels very “lucky” to have consistent work on TV. She also has a comedy show, Gift Horse, based on receiving a kayak as a birthday present, which she’ll tour this year.
“It’s terrifying,” she says of preparing for the show. “Have I made a terrible mistake? Is it going to work? I don’t have an ending yet. But once it all comes together, it’s the best thing in the world.”
Expect lots of laughs at Celia’s expense. She’s an open book in her shows – as she’s always been.
“I have no secrets,” she says. “Weirdly, I will say way more personal stuff to a group of strangers than to a person one-on-one. If I’m the joke, then I’m OK with that. It’s worked out really well.”
Dog Park airs Sunday, 8.30pm on ABC and ABC iview
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